PM's wife logs Suu Kyi support

Published on Thursday 28 May 2009 22:03

SARAH Brown, the wife of the Prime Minister, has used her influence to promote an internet campaign to free Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The campaign is being conducted over the social networking site Twitter and, thanks to Mrs Brown's intervention, has already attracted support of thousands of people including celebrities Jimmy Carr, Kevin Spacey, Eddie Izzard, Yoko Ono, Salman Rushdie and George Clooney.

Mrs Brown, who is shy about being in the public spotlight but is a keen "tweeter", has joined the campaign to help Ms Suu Kyi and mark her 64th birthday on 19 June.

The pro-democracy leader has been under house arrest for 13 years and is now being put through a show trial by the military junta running the country.

Among the supporters is Mrs Brown's husband, who wrote: "I add my voice to the growing chorus of those demanding your release.

"For too long the world has failed to act in the face of this intolerable injustice."

The campaign website that Mrs Brown has got involved with is www.64forsuu.org.

People can twitter messages of support by including "#assk64" in their tweet. It then is automatically sent to the campaign website. People are asked to do it in 64 words.

Mrs Brown has a Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/sarahbrown10 – and she has been tweeting at celebrities to get them involved and re-tweet the campaign details.